Warminster breaks ground on $3M community park upgrade project

James Boyle @jamesboylejr

Wednesday

Jun 13, 2018 at 5:00 PM

A groundbreaking ceremony Saturday highlighted a $3 million plan to upgrade Warminster Community Park and install new features. The project will go out to bid by the fall, according to township officials.

The 15th anniversary celebration of Warminster's largest park gave township officials the ideal backdrop to ceremonially break ground on a $3 million project to upgrade and improve the tract.

Warminster supervisors joined county commissioner Rob Loughery and state Rep. Bernie O'Neill Saturday afternoon to kick off the plan to add new amenities and improve some existing features of Warminster Community Park. The patch of earth dug up by a construction vehicle will be the only progress on the project for a few months, as the township awaits for state agency approvals before soliciting bids.

"PennDOT and the Department of Environmental Protection are reviewing the project now," said Warminster Township Manager Gregg Schuster on Wednesday afternoon. "Once we get it back, the supervisors will approve the bid documents. We're hoping to have the bids out in the fall."

The laundry list of upgrades and improvements include replacing the chain link fence on the park's Bristol Road border and permanently opening the special event entrance at Bristol and Hatboro roads. Schuster said there will be additional parking at the north end of the park, but traffic will not be able to enter off Bristol, cut through the park and exit at the Veterans Way entrance on the south side, or vice versa.

Planned new additions to the park include a second pavilion, more ballfields, expanded multi-use trails and a sprinkler playground. It might take another year for many of these features to get installed, but anticipation is already pretty high in the township, according to Supervisor Jason Croley.

"The response has been overwhelmingly positive," Croley said Wednesday. "People are especially excited about the sprayground. When we add more soccer and baseball fields, the township will be a more attractive place for tournaments."

It won't be clear until the bids come back if the entire menu will be served, or if certain items will be budgeted out. Funding will not come from the township's general fund or capital project budget, Schuster said Wednesday. A combination of state and county grants, plus fees collected from local developers, will cover the expenses.

In addition to improving Warminster Community Park, township officials also are working on enlarging the open space. A $7 million drawdown note financed by First National Bank & Trust of Newtown will be used to fund the purchase and rehabilitation of the 55-acre Shenendoah Woods property. The 199 deserted buildings at the former military housing community will be demolished and the land remediated into open space. The township has been approved for $3.5 million in state and county grants for the project, but Warminster has to pay the costs up front, then receive reimbursements.

"It will be nice when we reclaim that neighborhood and make it a passive part of the park," Croley said. "The only people interested in that area are people that like visiting ghost towns. After watching a couple videos on YouTube, it gets pretty old."

Several videos captured by trespassers and footage from drones have been posted online, showing rapidly aging homes and structures in Shenandoah Woods, which is fenced off on Bristol Road. Croley said Wednesday that he hopes that the acquisition and demolition happens as soon as possible, before an accident, such as a fire, occurs. It would also help township morale to remove reminders of the Navy's presence at the park, former site of the Naval Air Warfare Center. The use of fire retardant foam by the U.S. Navy caused the contamination of several public and private wells in the area, according to several news and government reports.

"It just feels like only a matter of time before something happens, like a fire or something," Croley said. "Plus, there's a lot of anger out there over the Navy and the water contamination. It doesn't seem right to keep those buildings up. We should reclaim the land, take out that neighborhood and use it to enjoy nature."

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